Edit: For what it’s worth, you can give Google feedback to stop this nonsense. Scroll down to Get Ready section and click on Share your feedback. You can use the following text as an example.
Android’s strength has always been in being both secure and open. Restricting sideloading goes against this principle and does little to protect users. The existing toggle and clear warnings are already enough to inform users of the risks.
Meanwhile, the Play Store itself continues to be the main source of Android malware. In 2023 alone, malicious apps on Google Play were downloaded over 600 million times. More recently, 77 infected apps with 19 million installs and 200+ other malicious apps with nearly 8 million installs slipped past Play Protect. These numbers make it clear where the real problem lies.
If Google truly wants to protect users, the focus should be on strengthening Play Store defenses. Android’s openness is not the threat; malware inside the official store is. Please prioritize fixing that instead of undermining one of Android’s core values.
I’m considering leaving Apple for Android for a very long time now. On my shortlist I have the Fairphone Gen 6 and the OnePlus 13. Other options are not possible. I don’t want Google or Samsung hardware, or any other manufacturers that make it difficult to unlock your bootloader.
One of the reasons is the freedom to install any app I want on my device, because it’s my device. But with the news about Google forcing developers to share their personal credentials it makes it difficult for me to go to Android. Basically Google is trying to kill sideloading. Should I even move to Android now or is Android with the limitation just like iOS?
In my opinion: Android used to be a 7/10, iOS at 3/10, now after Google’s announcement, its a 4/10.
For now at least, Google still allows Torrent clients and Firefox with extensions (like uBlock Origin), and this has been the case for the past decade. Google only requires a $25 one time fee for a developer account, Apple requires a recurring $99 per year payment. So Android is still better even with the restriction in mind.
Just pay $25, download apks from anywhere, sign the apps yourself. Supposedly they aren’t checking the contents (I mean, they have like tons of malware on Google Play and they never check those either, I doubt they are inspecting every single app), so just don’t distribute the apps to anyone other than yourself or some trusted friends and that’ll probably keep it under Google’s radar.
I’m currently planning on getting a Moto G 5G 2024 (about $140 right now on discount) for Lineage OS (CalyxOS was also supported, but they recently paused development so I’ll have to wait for that to be resolved). I was also considering a Pixel for Graphene, but its too expensive, and I don’t wanna deal with used market because a lot of then are ambiguous about if its a carrier variant and I just am too depressed to deal with the headache of that.
Even after 2027, Android will still be slightly better than iOS (in my opinion). Android still would (probably) have torrent apps, Firefox uBlock Origin (I can’t guarantee they won’t change it in 2028 or something). And iOS also seems to alway kill apps in the background from my experience, I could never get an app to synching data in the background, but Android is less aggressive with killing apps. Like I literally tried to plug in a USB flash drive and they said I had to install the Sandisk app then I have to keep the app on the foreground to finish transfer, but Android is doesn’t even need any apps, and transfers work in the background. Also, I don’t think iPhones have multitasking with 2 apps on at the same time yet.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
In my opinion: Android used to be a 7/10, iOS at 3/10, now after Google’s announcement, its a 4/10.
For now at least, Google still allows Torrent clients and Firefox with extensions (like uBlock Origin), and this has been the case for the past decade. Google only requires a $25 one time fee for a developer account, Apple requires a recurring $99 per year payment. So Android is still better even with the restriction in mind.
Just pay $25, download apks from anywhere, sign the apps yourself. Supposedly they aren’t checking the contents (I mean, they have like tons of malware on Google Play and they never check those either, I doubt they are inspecting every single app), so just don’t distribute the apps to anyone other than yourself or some trusted friends and that’ll probably keep it under Google’s radar.
I’m currently planning on getting a Moto G 5G 2024 (about $140 right now on discount) for Lineage OS (CalyxOS was also supported, but they recently paused development so I’ll have to wait for that to be resolved). I was also considering a Pixel for Graphene, but its too expensive, and I don’t wanna deal with used market because a lot of then are ambiguous about if its a carrier variant and I just am too depressed to deal with the headache of that.
Even after 2027, Android will still be slightly better than iOS (in my opinion). Android still would (probably) have torrent apps, Firefox uBlock Origin (I can’t guarantee they won’t change it in 2028 or something). And iOS also seems to alway kill apps in the background from my experience, I could never get an app to synching data in the background, but Android is less aggressive with killing apps. Like I literally tried to plug in a USB flash drive and they said I had to install the Sandisk app then I have to keep the app on the foreground to finish transfer, but Android is doesn’t even need any apps, and transfers work in the background. Also, I don’t think iPhones have multitasking with 2 apps on at the same time yet.